Admin careers at NCH&C
Our admin colleagues tell us about their careers at NCH&C
Our administrative teams play a vital and expert role at NCH&C and are crucial in helping us deliver outstanding health and care to our patients, and support to their families and carers. We have more than 200 people working in our admin teams across the trust – they are essential in the running of the NHS and it’s a fulfilling and interesting career.
If you think you know what a career in admin looks like, this article may help you think again. Administrative roles across NCH&C are hugely varied, and include jobs such as ward clerks, inpatient admin assistants, medical secretaries, receptionists, and personal assistants – to name a few. This means that if you want to, you can often move to a different team or service across the trust or to a different area of admin, gaining valuable skills and experience along the way.
“I started by being an admin support volunteer. I supported the community neuro team for a morning each week with ad-hoc admin tasks” says Sophie who started at NCH&C in 2018. “I have had a really varied career so far!” During the pandemic may admin roles changed significantly and Sophie was allocated to support reception staff with booking patients in, explaining how clinics were running and mask enforcement.
“I was then successful in applying for a receptionist role at St James Clinic. This really helped me learn how the trust operates and gain a good knowledge of all the services it provides to the community.
“This experience enabled me to take up a new post within the trust as an admin assistant based at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital which will see me working with and supporting a specialised team.”
One thing that does seem very apparent about working in the admin teams at NCH&C is that there are real career development opportunities if you want to progress or try something new. Grace Cooke, currently on secondment as business support manager is proof of that.
“I started at NCH&C in 2017 on a fixed term contract as an admin team lead in the Nursing and Quality Directorate. I was completely new to the NHS but I instantly loved seeing how admin teams and what they did contributed to patient experience and care.
“After a year I gained a permanent position as the admin team lead for a specialist service. I thoroughly enjoyed that role and working within the administration structure. It gave me the confidence and belief in myself that I could take my career further.
“Now I’m on secondment as the business support manager for admin operations working closely with the head of service, service lead, and the admin team leads to take forward, support and implement operational changes within administration. Administration operations are key to a functioning and efficient service, and I’m proud to be a part of that. I’m also currently studying for a second degree in Operational Management that I am doing via the Open University as an apprentice at NCH&C.”
Our admin roles are flexible and can suit anyone at any point in their life. With support from managers, admin staff at NCH&C talk about being given the right opportunities at the right time in their careers. Ruth, who has been at NCH&C for five years puts her career journey at the trust down to the encouragement she’s had from different managers at the trust when opportunities arose in other teams. “I started as a receptionist at St James’ Clinic. Being in my 50s and coming from a non-healthcare background I naturally thought this would be where I stayed. I learned a lot of key skills, from handling difficult situations, organisational skills, general office procedures, networking, through to IT skills.
“I loved my job but then my personal circumstances changed meaning that I had to move. I was motivated to apply for a higher banded admin position within the trust by my line manager, and her confidence in me gave me the push I needed.” Ruth was successful in this application and just a couple of years later was successful in achieving a Band 4 role. “The opportunities are there if you want them.”
And the hard work of our admin teams doesn’t go unnoticed. Jade is a central booking administration assistant and was nominated for an NCH&C REACH Award last year.
“I used to be really shy and didn’t have the confidence to talk to many people. Working in central booking has built my confidence and I’m very glad and lucky I was given the opportunity to start my carer there as an apprentice.
“Being nominated for the REACH Awards was a great achievement and an acknowledgment for all the hard work I was doing. I’m now a service champion and able to take leadership and help others with queries about the service. This has been a great opportunity for me and highly recommend it for someone looking to start a career.”
If you’re interested in applying for an admin role at NCH&C, check out our latest admin vacancies.